Millions from Gaddafi's frozen funds slip sanctions

12:01
09 February 2018
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Six years after Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi's death, his regime's frozen funds in Brussels are generating tens of millions of euros in interest for mystery beneficiaries, despite international sanctions, claims a media report.

The POLITICO news company published Thursday an investigative report into 16 billion euro (USD 19.5 billion) of Gaddafi's assets held in Belgium and said it discovered loopholes in the sanctions regime.

While Gaddafi's wealth is meant to be held in trust for the Libyan people until the war-shattered country stabilizes, interest payments flowed from frozen accounts in Brussels to bank accounts in Luxembourg and Bahrain over recent years. It quoted Belgium's finance ministry saying such payments are legal.

The interest goes to accounts belonging to the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), the country's sovereign fund, which was founded in 2006 to invest Gaddafi's oil wealth. LIA now lies at the heart of a turf war between rival claimants in Libya, and it's not clear who runs the agency or gets any of the funds sent to its accounts, said the report.